How Bagels Became Instruments of Revenge
by prplemyth
Summary: "The first day it happened, Piper claimed it was a mistake. She saw a plate on the table, laden with a perfectly cream cheese'd bagel and a bowl of mandarin oranges, next to a glass of what appeared to be chocolate milk. " Annabeth and Piper steal each others' breakfasts, but how did it all start? Oneshot.


_A/N: THE WRITER'S BLOCK IS GONE! Probably! I'm really sorry if this isn't great due to the fact that, yeah, it's been about two and a half months since I've written anything substantial and this is the first thing I've written since then. It is a present for my lunaparr on tumblr (YAY IT'S FINALLY DONE!) so I hope it lives up to her expectations and all of yours._

_Thank you for reading and I hope you all love it! _

* * *

The first day it happened, Piper claimed it was a mistake. She saw a plate on the table, laden with a perfectly cream cheese'd bagel and a bowl of mandarin oranges, next to a glass of what appeared to be chocolate milk. That was her ideal breakfast. How was she supposed to know that someone else had that exact favorite meal and had prepared it the way she would?

She reached down to grab the plate, and suddenly a small hand wrapped itself around her wrist. She looked up to see a livid, nearly red-eyed Annabeth Chase glaring at her.

Glaring down at her, actually. Wow, that girl was tall.

Trying not to look over at Chiron or Jason or Leo for some desperate help, she steadied herself. "H-hi, Annabeth, any reason you're halfway to amputating my wrist with your bare hands?" She looked down. "Er, bare hand?"

"That's my breakfast," said Annabeth, loosening the grip slightly but still looming over Piper like an angry statue of Athena. "And you're about to take it. Can you not steal my food?"

Piper awkwardly cleared her throat. "I'm sorry," she said, trying to not sound afraid. Every single time she had talked to Annabeth, she hadn't believed everyone when they said that she's terrifying now that Percy was gone. Now she was beginning to see what they were talking about.

"Any reason you had been planning on eating my breakfast, McLean?" Annabeth asked, her tone as steely as the grey of her eyes.

_Uh oh, _thought Piper,_ last names. She's using last names. Last names, and multiple questions in a row with completely different answers. She's going to catch me and think I'm lying when I'm not. _She tried to prevent herself from hyperventilating. _Gods almighty I just realized I'm up against the queen of intelligence. I'm going to die. I'm deader than a door nail. _She shook her head rapidly in response to whatever Annabeth had just said, hoping it was the right response. "I thought the table was, like, magically giving me my favorite breakfast. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to –"

Annabeth, to Piper's surprise, lit up. "Wait a second," said Annabeth, "you like mandarin oranges?" The grip loosened and Piper began to think she might get out of this experience alive.

Piper allowed herself a bit of a laugh. "Of course I do. What idiot doesn't?"

Annabeth let go of Piper's wrist and grinned broadly. "If you'd believe it, no one here can stand them. No idea why, but I'm the only one who will eat them, so I have to special order through Chiron secretly them instead of having them here on the table. I have to keep it on the down low just in case anyone finds out and thinks I'm some pampered princess who needs special food." She leaned against the table.

Suddenly Piper vividly understood what might have been an irrational reaction to stealing food. "Which is why you tweaked when I grabbed your plate," she said as Annabeth backed away and gave Piper more space.

"Exactly," replied Annabeth. "I thought you were making fun of me or something because of the extra food thing – like maybe you'd heard it from Drew."

Piper sighed. "The only time she talks to me is when she's making fun of me. So basically, yeah, I can see her doing that." She handed the plate over to Annabeth. "I'm sorry about the misunderstanding."

Annabeth took the plate and put it back down on the table, grabbing, an extra fork. "Definitely. Now, let's split the rest of these oranges, get you your own bagel, and yell at Chiron to purchase more, shall we?"

"Aren't we both going to seem like pampered princesses then?" asked Piper, her eyes involuntarily turned over to where Drew was sitting.

Annabeth followed her gaze, and her expression changed as it fell on Piper. "Ah," said Annabeth, "you got on Drew's bad side too, didn't you."

Piper shrugged. "Taking over the cabin put me on, like, the bad side of the moon in terms of Drew, really."

Annabeth's gaze went from looking understanding to devious. "Well then," said Annabeth, "while I walk you over to you table lets accidentally drop some of the cream cheese in her hair, shall we?"

Piper grinned. Perhaps Annabeth was scary when you get on her bad side, but if she was on the same side as Piper, some good times seemed to be in the future.

* * *

The second time it happens is when Annabeth literally snatches a bagel out of Piper's hand as she went to take a bite.

"Hey!" exclaimed Piper, frowning.

"My bagel," replied Annabeth nonchalantly, her mouth full of food. "You stole mine last time, and now I am stealing yours."

"I touched your plate last time!" Piper shouted angrily. "And you got your bagel back without having to rip it out of my hand, thanks very much."

Annabeth sighed. "Do you want the rest?" She held out the mangled bagel out to Piper, clearly fighting a grin.

Piper, though, didn't take the bait, yet she was also finding a smile trying to fight itself forward. Annabeth broke into a broad smile and pulled a plate of a perfectly cream cheese'd bagel and with a couple of raspberries and orange slices on the side of the plate from behind her back. "You didn't actually think I wouldn't steal your breakfast and not return it, did you?"

Piper laughed. "Pull up a seat, Annabeth, and we can eat our bagels in peace."

Annabeth's smile fell slowly. "Sadly, we can't."

Piper frowned. "Right. The table rules. I forgot about that. That sucks."

"Well, I can smile at you and chuck pieces of bagel at you from the Athena table."

"Sounds good to me." As Annabeth went to leave, Piper caught her sleeve. "Hold on a moment," she said, suddenly curious. "Why are we doing this exactly?"

"Doing what?"

"Doing the food stealing thing."

Annabeth shrugged. "Because we're friends."

"Because of bagels?" asked Piper. "Why couldn't we have been friends without the bagels?" She made a face. "Especially this time."

Annabeth sighed in an aren't-you-a-cute-one type of way. "It's a tradition," Annabeth said.

"A tradition?" asked Piper. "It's happened twice."

"Which is why I did it this time," said Annabeth with a grin. "You stole mine last time, and I stole it this time. Thus, the tradition begins."

Piper frowned. "This time?" she asked warily.

Annabeth nodded. "Oh, my little daughter of love," said Annabeth, "my normal partner in crime is gone, so I am in the business for another one to add to my repertoire."

"And our crime is stealing each other's breakfasts?" asked Piper incredulously.

Annabeth nodded. "I'll see you later. Don't tell Drew she has syrup all over her face."

Drew, from across the table, looked up at the two of them, horrified. "What?!" she screamed. "I just did my makeup!" And with that, she got up and booked it back to the cabin.

"She didn't have anything on her face, did she," said Piper, not even bothering to fight the laugh that the entire table was fighting.

Annabeth shook her head slowly, grinning broadly. "No, no, and no."

* * *

It began to seem like a war. Creative means were used to steal breakfasts, including Leo offering to toast Annabeth's bagel for her on a very rainy Tuesday that ended with him shoving the bagel into Piper's face in a horrifying double agent scenario that ended with Leo's head stuck in a pile of hay.

The most elaborate mission, though, was when almost everyone else was at school at the beginning of May, when Leo was just about ready to get the Argo II ready. Annabeth, Piper, Rachel, Jason and Leo decided to have breakfast next to it one day.

But Piper had a plan.

She had volunteered Jason to be in charge of breakfast to deter suspicion, but she was sure that it would require a little more effort than that to pull the wool over Annabeth's eyes. She had special ordered from the Stoll twins a ridiculous amount of whipped cream and a few pie plates in order to keep the whipped cream together, and put together the scheme faster than she had done anything before. She was beginning to really like this whole criminal mastermind thing.

"Ugh, I'm sorry guys," said Piper, "but I think I'm going to be late for breakfast. I've got to get the cabin put together because a certain someone completely decimated it this morning looking for her hair spray." She made what she hoped was a disgruntled expression and glared in Drew's direction.

"Tough break, beauty queen, but you probably should have been neater when looking for your hair equipment," quipped Leo. Piper simply responded by shoving a bit of Leo's shirt into his mouth. "It wasn't me, you dolt."

"I'll meet you up there in a few minutes."

And that's when her plan begun.

Jason was tasked with "forgetting" the cream cheese in the breakfast basket and sending Annabeth back to pick up some more of it without suspecting a thing.

Piper then would wait for Annabeth to come up from behind a tree or something and pie her in the face with the ridiculous amount of whipped cream. It was going to be great, she was sure of it.

Of course, fifteen minutes later when she was sure Jason would have sent Annabeth back to the kitchens to grab the cream cheese, Piper was convinced something was going horribly, horribly wrong. Peeking her head out from behind the tree, she could see her friends munching away on their breakfast.

And Annabeth had a perfectly cream-cheese'd bagel in her hand.

Jason had failed her in the most important endeavor of her life. This was a disaster.

Piper, in a blind giddy moment of devil-may-care daring, picked up the whipped cream pies and bolted toward the group and chucked the first one at Jason and the second one at Annabeth as quickly as she could.

Then, in an act of either defiance or stupidity, Piper wasn't sure which, she yelled, "eat whipped cow's milk, demigods!" and ripped Annabeth's bagel out of her hand.

Then she ran as fast as she could out of the place.

She could hear footsteps behind her, but she wasn't particularly sure who it was until they tackled her and blonde hair and whipped cream smacked her in the neck. "You do NOT," yelled Annabeth, who was sitting on her back, "try to pie Annabeth Delia Chase in the neck with whipped cream and try to get away with it!"

As Annabeth smooshed whipped cream all over Piper's face, the only thing that she could say was, "Since when has your middle name been Delia?"

* * *

So when Annabeth stole the bagel out of Piper's hand on the ship, it was a little resonance of normalcy that was needed for everyone.

Percy, on the other hand, was horribly confused. "You know," said Percy to Annabeth later as they were saying goodnight, "I was surprised you stole Piper's food. That seemed kind of rude of you."

Annabeth scoffed. "Remember when I used to steal your underwear earlier last year and hide it in bizarre places in the different cabins?"

Percy frowned, knowing that this was going in a dangerous direction. "…Yes…"

"Think of it like that," said Annabeth, patting his cheek. "Only involving fewer Batman underpants."


End file.
